NEW TITLES SPRING 2025
THE BIG FIGHT WHEN ALI CONQUERED
IRELAND
DAVE HANNIGAN
On a balmy July evening in 1972, soundtracked by The Dubliners, Muhammad Ali climbed through the ropes to fight Al ‘Blue’ Lewis at Croke Park. The most famous athlete in the world had somehow been inveigled to Ireland by Butty Sugrue, a former circus strongman turned charismatic entrepreneur. He was ridiculed for trying to do the impossible right up to the moment Ali and his entourage touched down at Dublin Airport. So began a magical week of the most glorious mayhem, as ‘the Champ’ charmed the Irish people.
Ali could be found jogging along Wicklow lanes, strolling into The Old Stand pub, chatting with street cleaners, and paying an early morning visit to the GPO to receive a history lesson about the Easter Rising. No matter where he fetched up, wonderful chaos ensued. Traffic stopped. Crowds gathered. The greatest show on earth had come to town.
Through interviews with dozens of those Ali met and worked with over the course of those seven unforgettable days, Dave Hannigan has pieced together an enthralling narrative of one of the most unique events in Irish sporting history.
Born in Cork city, Dave Hannigan is a former Irish Young Journalist of the Year. Starting his career at The Sunday Tribune, he now writes a weekly sports column in The Irish Times. Hannigan has written non-fiction books about Winston Churchill, Eamon de Valera, Terence MacSwiney and Brendan Behan.
PURE GOLD
MEMORABLE CONVERSATIONS WITH REMARKABLE PEOPLE
EAMON CARR
In the late 1980s Horslips lyricist and drummer Eamon Carr began his journalistic career by conducting interviews with an eclectic mix of famous people. Told in Carr’s immediate, entertaining style, Pure Gold is a portal to a time before practised TV chat show performances and the churn of social media sound bites, providing honest and sometimes introspective insights into the private lives of global stars and national treasures, such as Jack Charlton, Eartha Kitt, Shane MacGowan and Malcolm McLaren.
A natural raconteur, Carr soon discovered that people were eager to share their stories with him, from J.P. Donleavy’s accounts of his mercurial friendship with Brendan Behan to Brenda Fricker’s memories of delivering her acceptance speech when she became the first Irish woman ever to win an Oscar.
Almost cinematic in his descriptions, Carr’s conversations with this cast of luminaries are searingly honest, irreverent and profound, highlighting the humanity that unites us all. Pure Gold is a treasure trove of interviews that will remain with the reader long after the book is closed.
Eamon Carr is a member of Horslips. A journalist and art historian, he has been cultural commentator and reporter on news and sport for Independent Newspapers for over two decades.
RAMBLES IN ÉIRINN
WILLIAM BULFIN
At the turn of the twentieth century William Bulfin embarked on his tours of Ireland, his method of travel as simple as his style of writing – he cycled the length and breadth of the land.
Nothing escaped his eye, and in Rambles in Éirinn the reader is treated to vivid descriptions of the places, personalities and historical significance of the counties he traversed. Much of what he describes has since been swept away, and his musings offer a fascinating glimpse into the Ireland of the time, a period that saw significant social change, reflected in the author’s staunch nationalism, his disdain for colonial rule and his hope for Irish freedom.
With its vivid descriptions and evocative storytelling, Rambles in Éirinn serves as both a nostalgic tribute to a changing Ireland and an insightful exploration of its enduring spirit, making it a timeless read for lovers of travel literature and Irish history alike.
William Bulfin was born in Co. Offaly and emigrated to Argentina in 1884. An author, journalist, newspaper editor and publisher, his pieces appeared in The Southern Cross, United Irishman and Sinn Féin. Following his death in 1910, his son Eamon was involved in the 1916 Easter Rising and his daughter Catalina married Seán MacBride, a leading Irish republican who was the son of Maud Gonne and Major John MacBride.
344 pages 226 x 153mm
A YEAR IN THE WOODS
MONTALTO THROUGH THE SEASONS
PAUL CLEMENTS
‘The frost has turned intricately created spider webs into thin necklaces slung between branches on shrubs. On the forest floor, leaves are rigid-stiff, while across the grass, the slender and frozen blades have a magical quality.’
In A Year in the Woods the well-known nature writer Paul Clements describes in lyrical detail the year he spent living in a cottage on the grounds of the Montalto Estate in County Down.
Fusing history, nature writing and memoir, he celebrates the changing seasons, from harsh winter storms to languid summer evenings. His captivating writing revels in the joy of a life spent outdoors and the small moments of wonder that come from being surrounded by the natural world.
Paul Clements is the author of five travel books about Ireland. He has also written two biographies: one on the Irish writer, actor and singer Richard Hayward, and the other on the Welsh travel writer and historian Jan Morris. A former BBC assistant editor, he is a contributor to The Irish Times. He lives with his wife and son in Belfast.
240 pages 215 x 135mm
WILD WATERWAYS
A CELEBRATION OF LIFE ON AN IRISH RIVER
ROBERT
O’LEARY WITH A FOREWORD BY ÉANNA NÍ LAMHNA
In our modern, distracted world it is easy to miss the kaleidoscope of life that exists on our doorsteps.
Stretching nearly thirty kilometres from the Wicklow Mountains to the Grand Canal Dock, the River Dodder offers a serene escape into nature in our capital city. In Wild Waterways, Robert O’Leary showcases the river’s rich biodiversity through stunning photography and informative text in Irish and English.
In these pages, you are invited to pause and reconnect with the teeming wildlife that surrounds us – kingfishers diving, otters playing, wagtails busily foraging and emperor dragonflies patrolling the river’s surface for prey.
Showcasing birds, mammals and insects in glorious detail, these dazzling images remind us that you’re never too young, too old or too busy to ‘stand and stare’ and reconnect with the natural world in all its glory.
Robert O’Leary, having spent a long career in the education sector, and with a Masters degree from Trinity College, Dublin, has written a number of books for primary school children and for teachers. Now retired, he devotes much of his time to capturing on camera Ireland’s unique range of birds, mammals and insects, as well as teaching photography.
80 pages 205 x 130mm
COLOUR
KINCORA: BRITAIN’S SHAME
MOUNTBATTEN, MI5, THE BELFAST BOYS’ HOME
SEX ABUSE SCANDAL AND THE BRITISH COVER-UP
CHRIS MOORE
For over four decades the story of the extraordinary evil that occurred at the Kincora Boys’ Home in East Belfast in the 1970s and the shocking attempts by MI5 to cover it up have haunted our political and social terrain for decades. Award-winning former BBC journalist Chris Moore has been working on the story since it first emerged in 1980, and has uncovered a horrific catalogue of failed opportunities to put an end to the sadistic activities of the men who were running the home, in particular those of prominent Orangeman and MI5 source William McGrath.
What has emerged over the course of Moore’s investigation, in which he has gained exclusive access to witnesses, secret documents and whistleblowers within the British intelligence services, is that not only were the boys in Kincora systematically sexually abused, but that some were forced into a countrywide paedophile ring, whose members included Lord Louis Mountbatten. Moore also exposes MI5’s attempts to cover up what actually happened and that the organisation knew as early as the 1970s that the boys in Kincora were being abused.
Kincora is a shocking exposé of how the British state failed to protect some of its most vulnerable members.
Chris Moore is an award-winning journalist and the author of six books. He became a local reporter in Northern Ireland in 1968 before joining BBC Northern Ireland in 1979. In 1982 he cut his investigative teeth on Kincora, a scandal whose full dimensions remain to be revealed.
LOST GAELS
REMEMBERING THE MEMBERS OF THE GAA KILLED DURING THE CONFLICT IN IRELAND
PEADAR THOMPSON WITH A FOREWORD BY JARLATH
BURNS
‘Groundbreaking’ – The Irish News
‘The first thorough account of the tragic impact of the Troubles on the GAA’ – Irish Examiner
‘Beautifully presented’ – Derry Journal
The GAA has long been at the heart of Irish life, nurturing our culture and communities and fostering powerful social bonds.
However, as sectarian conflict intensified in the North, the GAA became the object of animosity and surveillance by loyalist paramilitaries and Crown forces. Clubhouses and pitches were occupied by British forces, fans were security checked and harrassed on their way to and from games, and over 150 members were killed.
Lost Gaels is the first comprehensive account of the devastating impact of the Troubles on the GAA, providing a platform for bereaved family and friends to pay homage to their lost loved ones. Capturing the deep connection between the GAA and the everyday lives of Irish people, this is a poignant and powerful tribute to the lives of lost Gaels.
Peadar Thompson is a lifelong Gael from West Belfast Strongly motivated by his own family’s campaigning for truth and justice, Peadar has read law at both Newcastle University and Leiden University, and has worked in the fields of human rights, law and victim advocacy, including at Relatives for Justice. Peadar is named after his paternal uncle, Peter, who was killed on 13 January 1990 by undercover British Army Intelligence Officers.
THE SORROW AND THE LOSS
THE TRAGIC SHADOW CAST BY THE TROUBLES ON THE LIVES OF WOMEN
MARTIN DILLON
Award-winning journalist and bestselling author Martin Dillon shines a light on the impact of the Troubles on the lives of women, amplifying voices long silenced by the din of history.
Through raw and compelling testimonies, he explores the overlooked perspectives of mothers, wives and daughters whose lives were brutally affected by the conflict. Some were directly involved in violence as members of paramilitary organisations. Many witnessed the ruthless murders of family members. All were profoundly and irrevocably affected by the bloodshed.
Among those who share their stories are a survivor of the 1974 Dublin bombings, the wife of a notorious UDA assassin and the daughter of a murdered judge. Dillon, the first person to expose the IRA policy of disappearing victims, delves into some of those brutal murders, including that of Jean McConville. He also unmasks the shadowy dealings of British intelligence and the impact of collusion on unsolved murders, exposing the layers of deception that have haunted families and communities.
The Sorrow and the Loss is an eye-opening and poignant exploration of this previously unwritten history of the Troubles, challenging readers to confront the harsh realities of a conflict where truth and justice remain elusive.
Martin Dillon worked as a BBC journalist for eighteen years producing award-winning programmes for television and radio, and has won international acclaim for his unique, investigative books on the Northern Ireland conflict. Conor Cruise O’Brien, renowned historian and scholar, described him as ‘our Virgil to that inferno’.
DEATH IN DERRY
MARTIN McGUINNESS AND THE DERRY IRA’S WAR AGAINST THE BRITISH
JONATHAN TRIGG
‘I was in the Army over thirty years and Derry was the most resentful place I ever served, even the dogs hated us.’
When civil rights protests in the 1960s gave way to armed struggle, the Provisional IRA in Derry – both city and county – led the fight against the British security forces. In the city Martin McGuinness – a young butcher’s assistant from the Bogside – quickly rose through the ranks, launching a bombing campaign that reduced the city centre to rubble. In tandem, the IRA’s active service units fought the British Army in the streets and alleys of the Bogside, Creggan, Shantallow and the Waterside. Out in the townlands, a new generation from the county’s traditional republican families waged an equally ruthless war against their neighbours in the RUC and UDR. The Derry Brigade’s success would help propel McGuinness to the very top of the IRA’s Army Council.
By the early 1980s the Derry Brigade appeared untouchable. However, in reality, Special Branch and British Intelligence had infiltrated it from top to bottom and almost destroyed the brigade. By the mid-1990s its war was all but over, its ranks decimated by death and incarceration. This is the story of that war told by those from all sides who survived it.
A graduate of Bristol University and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Jonathan Trigg served as an infantry officer in the Royal Anglian Regiment, completing tours in Northern Ireland and Bosnia, as well as the Gulf. He is the author of over a dozen books of military history, including Death in the Fields: The IRA and East Tyrone (Merrion Press, 2023).
304 pages 215 x 135mm
ONE MAN’S IRELAND
MEMOIRS OF DAN MULVIHILL, MAVERICK REPUBLICAN
OWEN O’SHEA
Dan Mulvihill was an Irish republican, a freedom fighter, a maverick, a man of principle. This unrepentant and compelling narrative reveals his part in the fight for an Irish Republic and his central involvement in key events throughout the twentieth century.
Mulvihill was at the heart of many of the most iconic and tumultuous events during Ireland’s revolutionary years. He was an IRA volunteer who fought and killed in the name of Ireland, a loyal ally of Éamon de Valera – whom he smuggled out of Dublin at the beginning of the Civil War – a vehement opponent of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, a member of Liam Lynch’s staff in the anti-Treaty IRA, a prisoner and hunger striker, a spy and intelligence officer.
One Man’s Ireland uses Mulvihill’s own unpublished memoir to tell his story from 1916 to the early 1980s, describing the seminal events in the history of the country as well as the many key figures in republicanism in his native Kerry and nationally. In doing so it brings a significant but largely forgotten Irish revolutionary back into the light.
Dr Owen O’Shea is the author of several books on history and politics in his native county of Kerry, including the highly acclaimed No Middle Path: The Civil War in Kerry (Merrion Press, 2022), Ballymacandy: The Story of a Kerry Ambush (Merrion Press, 2021) and Heirs to the Kingdom: Kerry’s Political Dynasties (O’Brien Press, 2011). He works as Media, Communications and Customer Relations Officer with Kerry County Council.
256 pages 215 x 135mm
THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL
THE IRISH BOUNDARY COMMISSION
CORMAC MOORE
Described by Ulster Unionist leader James Craig as the ‘root of all evil’, the Boundary Commission that convened in 1924 was a symbol of hope for nationalist Ireland and fear for unionist Northern Ireland. Offered to Sinn Féin plenipotentiaries to help push the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty over the line, it was believed the Commission would transfer large tracts of the six counties back to the newly established Free State.
However, delayed by the Civil War and Unionist non-cooperation, and hampered from the start by the vague and ambiguous wording of the clause in the Treaty, by the Irish government’s naivety, by the intransigence of unionists, and by the duplicity of successive British governments, it ultimately bolstered the unionist cause, leaving the border unchanged. Swathes of Northern nationalists were abandoned to their fate, their trust in both British and Free State governments irrevocably damaged.
One hundred years on, Cormac Moore illuminates the fascinating and infuriating story behind the Boundary Commission’s momentous failure, which would have long-lasting, catastrophic consequences for the entirety of the island of Ireland.
Dr Cormac Moore is an historian-in-residence with Dublin City Council and a columnist with The Irish News who also edits its ‘On This Day’ segment. He has published widely on Irish history, including the books Birth of the Border: The Impact of Partition in Ireland (Merrion Press, 2019), and The GAA V Douglas Hyde: The Removal of Ireland’s First President as GAA Patron (The Collins Press, 2012).
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